ISN 2023-16: Intel Downfall CPU Vulnerability

First published 24 August 2023

CVSS 3.1: 6.5 (Medium)

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N

Summary

A vulnerability nicknamed Downfall has been discovered in several Intel CPU lines. This affects the following IGEL Products

• IGEL OS 12 running on specific Intel CPUs
• IGEL OS 11 running on specific Intel CPUs

Details

Downfall (CVE-2022-40982) is a vulnerability in the memory optimization features in Intel processors. It can allow a local user to steal secrets from other users on the same system, and from the Linux Kernel. This is a threat mainly to environments where many VMs or many user accounts are hosted, but not so much IGEL OS, which only has one person using it.

This vulnerability is rated as medium. It affects Intel Core processors from the 6th Skylake to and including the 11th Tiger Lake generation.

The reporter of Downfall has published proof-of-concept exploit code.

Update Instructions

• OS 12: Update the IGEL OS Base System app to version 12.02.100 (available in September 2023)
• OS 11: Update to OS 11.09.100 (available in September 2023)

References

• Daniel Moghimi, “Downfall Attacks”: https://downfall.page/
• CVE-2022-40982: https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2022-40982